309 "T EN SA M O D W IE C ZN Y W R Ó G NIE B EZ P IE C ZN Y "… eLŻBIetA SIDoRUK University of Bialystok 0000-0002-6132-5808
“Ten sam odwieczny
wróg niebezpieczny.”
1
The Universal
Dimension of Tuwim’s Satire
S U M M A R Y
In the article, the author analyses the satirical works by Julian Tuwim published in his poetic collections. By indicating the strong bonds between poetry and sa-tire in the poet’s works, the author explains the phenomenon of the unwavering topicality of Tuwim’s satire having generalising ambitions. She has considered the poet’s masterful combination of the poetic perspective with the attitude of a satirist as a factor which enables the generalisation of the critical diagnosis. However, she argues that the universal dimension of his wide-scope satirical works is mainly determined by the poet’s worldview-based horizons, which constituted the point of reference for his critical evaluation of the existing social reality, which exposed the destructive influence of a community on an individual. She also stated that he was able to peer deep into the mentality of the mindless members of the “tyrannous community” by virtue of his distance towards himself, in turn being the result of his sense of the absurdity of his own existence.
Keywords
Polish poetry, satire, satirical discourse, poetry, literary circulation
1 “The same eternal dangerous enemy.” [Unless indicated otherwise, quotations in En-glish were translated from Polish]
Czytanie Literatury Łódzkie Studia Literaturoznawcze 9/2020 ISSN 2299–7458 e-ISSN 2449–8386 https://doi.org/10.18778/2299-7458.09.16
310 eL ŻB Ie tA S ID o R U K Julian Tuwim’s works – commonly known and appreciated in elite, popular and village fair2 circles – clearly prove that satire is a phenomenon with fluid borders, and one which is multifunctional and diverse in terms of the genres and styles it utilises.3 The relationships between Tuwim’s poetic, sa-tirical and stage texts – the quintessential example of which is Bal w
Ope-rze, one of his most renowned works – have been convincingly documented
and the poetics of the texts “borne from a different spirit and in a different poetic climate”4 has impacted the shape of various works Tuwim included in his poetic collections. The satirical force is clearly visible in all of them5. When the poet himself published Jarmark rymów [Rhymes’ Fair] in 1934, he indicated in the preface that it carried a different character than the collec-tions of “lyrical” poems he had released earlier, though did also admit that:
Of course, it would be difficult to define a precise borderline between this and that “kind”; the old volumes certainly include poems which could be included in it, and there are also the rare few for which there would be a place in the previous books. There is a predominance of satirical items in it (once again, a term which is unstable and extensive!), often associated with an outworn note of currentness, and sometimes with a further and more durable reach. A few of those, but no more than there are fingers on one hand, were once spoken or sang on the stages of Warsaw’s street theatres. I am emphasising that to clearly stress that those did not include
2 See Tomasz Stępień, “O satyrze skamandryckiej. (Wokół „Wstępu” do „Jarmarku ry-mów” Juliana Tuwima),” in idem, „O satyrze” (Katowice, 1996) As the researcher noted Tuwi-m’s “‘comedy show’ numbers written under a dozen or so different noms the plume” had “to some extent the status of folkloric texts. (They circulated as copies, they were modernised by new performers, and as anonymous content they ended up in pirate brochures operating within rowdy circles)” (ibid., 259–260).
3 See T. Stępień, “Satyra jaka jest każdy widzi? O satyrze i satyryczności w polskiej świa-domości literackiej XIX i XX wieku,” in idem, „O satyrze”…, 19–80; E. Sidoruk, Granice satyry (Białystok, 2018), 17–123. In this article, as in the referenced book, I shall consider satire as a discursive practice with a broad reach, the domain of which covers both literary and non--literary texts. As Simpson argued convincingly, the category of ‘discourse’ proves extremely convenient when discussing complex relations between a comedian, recipients and the object of the criticism (see P. Simpson, On the Discourse of Satire. Towards a Stylistic Model of Satirical Humor (Amsterdam–Philadelphia, 2003), 69–109). In reference to the proposition formulated by Dustin Griffin, who polemised with the so-called “moral” concept of satire, I shall assume that a comedian does not need to operate from the position of a moralist certain of their ar-gument who presents arguments leading to some definite conclusions (see D. Griffin, Satire. A Critical Reintroduction (Kentucky, 1994), 35–70). I also consider Frederic Bogel’s concept that the attitude of a comedian towards the object of criticism is marked with ambivalence as it fluctuates between identification and opposition as accurate. According to him, satire is not so much the reaction of a comedian to the noticed difference between them and the object of their criticism, but rather it consists of creating that difference, an act which is triggered by an unease caused by an identification in themselves similarities to the object (see F. Bogel, The Difference Satire Makes. Rhetoric and Reading from Jonson to Byron (Ithaca–London, 2000), 41–83).
4 J. Tuwim, Jarmark rymów, edited by J. Stradecki (Warsaw, 1991), 5.
5 Anna Węgrzyniak’s studies (Dialektyka organizacji językowej tekstu w poezji Tuwima (Ka-towice, 1987), and Ja głosów świata imitator. Studia o poezji Juliana Tuwima (KaTuwima (Ka-towice, 2003)) and Tomasz Stępień’s (Kabaret Juliana Tuwima (Katowice, 1989)) offer the most valuable contribu-tions to the study of Tuwim’s work in this respect. See also E. Sidoruk, Groteska w poezji Dwu-dziestolecia. Leśmian – Tuwim – Gałczyński (Białystok, 2004).
311 "T EN SA M O D W IE C ZN Y W R Ó G NIE B EZ P IE C ZN Y "… neither the so-called “cabaret numbers” nor the texts of Pikador’s satirical nativity plays or the Cyrulik Warszawski, which I wrote many together with friends.
The book concludes in a few columns and humoresques written in prose.6
When focussing on the “quotation-mark character of genological de-finitions” and the lack of accuracy of the terms used by Tuwim, Tomasz Stępień has read the poet’s explanations not only as an indication of the problems with the categorisation of his own output, but he also considered that as an indication of a general state of literary awareness of the interwar period.7 According to the researcher, the classification of literary and quasi--literary forms outlined in the introduction to Jarmark rymów emerged from an evident hierarchy: at the top there were collections of “lyrical” poems, below them there were rhymed “satirical pieces” and columns and humore-sques written in prose, with “the natural space being the pages of satirical weeklies or satirical sections and columns in other periodicals,”8 and the lowest level was occupied by stage pieces, “unworthy of including them in any collection signed with a poet’s name.”9 Those remarks have led to the following ascertainment:
Satire, therefore, would be located between the “needed” and prestigious poetry, and the embarrassing, though necessary for (a quite convenient) life, serial and commercial stage productions. Printed in specialised periodicals and publications, it had the nature of single-use literature, which is why the appearance of “satirical items” in a book edition required a special justification in the author’s preface.10
Though the publication of Jarmark rymów as a separate collection with the included preface might offer some reason for drawing such a conclusion, the fact that Tuwim published in his poetic collections such poems as
Walka (Wierszy tom 4, 1923) Quatorze Julliet (Słowa we krwi, 1926), the Trzy wiersze o fryzjerze triptych (Rzecz czarnoleska, 1929), Złota polska jesień, Apo-kalipsa, …Et arceo, Magazyn gastronomiczny, Wiosna chamów, Wiec, Do pro-stego człowieka, Luksus, Mieszkańcy (Biblia cygańska, 1933), Ruch, ***[Znów to
szuranie, bełkotu chór…], or the Z wierszy o państwie series (Treść gorejąca, 1936), which clearly included instances of satirical force, complicate the hierarchy outlined by Stępień. The appearance of the listed works next to “lyrical” poems indicates that the issue of the position occupied by the broadly understood satire in Tuwim’s output is much more complex. As indicated by the above enumeration, Biblia cygańska, published a year prior
6 Ibid. 7 T. Stępień, „O satyrze skamandryckiej. (Wokół „Wstępu” do „Jarmarku rymów” Juliana Tuwima)”…, 259. 8 Ibid. 9 Ibid. 10 Ibid., 260.
312 eL ŻB Ie tA S ID o R U K
to the publication of Jarmark rymów, was a volume in which the satirical character was particularly strong. What is noteworthy, the collection inc- luded the poem “Plajta. Kuplety,” in which “the pathos of satirical vilifica-tion” was “filtered through the carnivalesque poetics of satirical nativity play and cabaret.”11
Unlike in the case of “Plajta,” which was excluded from later releases of Biblia cygańska, the Z wierszy o państwie series included in Treść gorejąca
– in which “Tuwim utilised all the available instruments of political satire”
differentiating the critical tone depending on the importance of the object12 – was consistently reprinted in consecutive full editions of the collection. As
Anna Węgrzyniak noted, the analytical vision of the structure of the series “implies the question why a work in which the satirical force triumphed”
was included by the poet in Treść gorejąca.13 According to the researcher, that was caused by the hierarchy of the importance of the juxtaposed lyrical and satirical elements throughout the whole:
Wiersze o państwie mocked and condemned the language of “state-building ideology” of the Sanation movement in defence of the irrefutable religious values of national culture. The “distorting mirror” of satire supports in this case a positive program; the mocking negation fulfils a key yet not a superior role in the work. Hence, some sections of the series are devoid of satirical instances, and in the surrounding parts they are non-existent. As a result, the structure of the whole breaks into two separate spheres: poetry and satire, where poetry fulfils a superior role, while satire is an-cillary to the expression of poetry rationale.14
I believe that the decision to include the series in a poetic volume was justified not so much by the superiority of the lyrical perspective as the nature of satire, the scope of which, as indicated in Węgrzyniak’s in-depth analysis, despite its clear grounding in historical facts was broader than one might expect from a cursory reading. I would venture an argument that, from today’s perspective, when individual references to the political situ-ation in which the work was created are no longer clear, the general dimen-sion of the criticism included in the work become more distinct. The clash between the languages of poetry and political satire was used to juxtapose “two worlds: the institutionalised world of state operations hostile towards humans and the world of personal values, in which humanitarian ‘sulkings’ matter.”15 The disapproval of the state, which was depicted as a “company” not respecting the interests of people, matched the stream of “the broadly defined reflection on the world in the poet’s works, within which any orga-nised collective destroys people condemning them for a removal of their identities,” which is why “Tuwim’s ‘theory of the state and the political
11 T. Stępień, Kabaret Juliana Tuwima (Katowice, 1989), 164.
12 A. Węgrzyniak, Ja głosów świata imitator. Studia o poezji Juliana Tuwima…, 116. 13 Ibid., 124.
14 Ibid., 128. 15 Ibid., 112.
313 "T EN SA M O D W IE C ZN Y W R Ó G NIE B EZ P IE C ZN Y "… system’ did not consider the differences of individual groups.”16 The fifth fragment of the series proves that emphatically:
Karności ucz, urabiaj, mustruj, Zarządzaj, sądź i skazuj, ustrój; Tak każe racja stanu, ustrój; Lepszy czy gorszy – mniejsza z tem. W każdym jest śmieszność, grzech [i zgroza, I groteskowej mocy gest. Szubienicznego splot powroza Gordyjskim jego węzłem jest. A sprawiedliwy niech nie wini Mocy o przemoc. Tak ma być. Sprawiedliwemu – na pustyni Do gwiazd o sprawiedliwość wyć! W państwowy Samotników sztandar Noc go otuli. Będzie sam. Chociaż… kto wie?… czasami żandarm Służbowo zajrzy nawet tam.17
Teach discipline, mould, muster,
Control, judge and sentence, systematise it; Thus, requires raison d’etre, the system; Better or worse – it doesn’t matter. In each there is comicality, sin and terror, And the grotesque power’s gesture. The threat of the gallow’s line Is its Gordian knot.
And may the just not blame Power for violence. That’s how it’s
[supposed to be. The just one – in the desert May call to the stars for justice! In the state standard of Loners
The night shall envelop him. He will be [alone.
Though... who knows?... sometimes an [officer
On duty may even pop in.
According to Węgrzyniak, the included in the poem “assessment of the
stricte sensu state reality is mediocre” as Tuwim with his “extensive
expe-rience in professing pro-governmental political satire” which allowed “criti-cism from the position of a Sanation sympathiser” did question its “mistakes without disavowing the system.”18 By expressing disapproval of the state’s institutions, he discussed them from the perspective of a poet; he “spoke not as a politician but rather as a defender of the value of words, a spokesman of national interests,” for which more evil was carried not by the consequences of violence inscribed in the essence of the rule of law (e.g. “prisons” and “penal expeditions”), but by unjustifiable evil, which is brought about by “forging words,” and the appropriation of the language of Romantic poetry
for the purposes of state-building ideology.19
One could, of course, debate whether in the Z wierszy o państwie series Tuwim disavowed the system itself grading “thorough evil” which he saw “w rządach, władzach i urzędach / I w tych co światem rządzić chcą”20 [in
16 Ibid., 112–113.
17 J. Tuwim, “Z wierszy o państwie,” in idem, Wiersze zebrane, edited by A. Kowalczy-kowa, vol. II, 245–246.
18 A. Węgrzyniak, Ja głosów świata imitator. Studia o poezji Juliana Tuwima…, 115. 19 Ibid., 126.
314 eL ŻB Ie tA S ID o R U K governments, authorities and offices / And in those who wish to rule the world] or only seemingly justified state-sanctioned violence (“A sprawie-dliwy niech nie wini / Mocy o przemoc. Tak ma być. / Sprawiedliwemu – na pustyni / Do gwiazd o sprawiedliwość wyć” [as translated above]),
through irony expressing his conviction that, from the perspective of an individual, every state system is oppressive and unjust. Clearly, it does not include such a radical criticism of the Sanation ideology and the general me-chanisms of government as in the delayed for its obscenities Bal w Operze, in which Tuwim not only ruthlessly uncovered the omnipresence of state pro-paganda, but he also emphatically illustrated the dangerous consequences of the state’s instrumental utilisation of the language of Romantic poetry: Płynie na czcionki drukarska farba: IDE OLO „Ile Rabarbar?” Karna Kadra Ducha Czynu „Proszę za dziesięć groszy kminu” Miecz Krzyż Duch Dziejów „Proszę za dziesięć groszy kleju” Ducha Dziejów Karne Kadry „Proszę za dziesięć groszy [musztardy” Czerep rubaszny Paw narodów „Proszę za dziesięć groszy lodów” Jeden Tylko Jeden Cud – „Ober, jeszcze butelkę na lód!” I bac! bac! I plac opustoszał, I do bramy wloką truposza. I bac, bac! zza rogu, z sieni,
Printing ink flows onto the sorts: IDE OLO “How much is the rhubarb?” Disciplined Staff of the Spirit of Action “I’ll have ten groszys’ worth of cumin” Sword Cross Spirit of History “I’ll have ten groszys’ worth of glue” Spirit of History’s Disciplined Staff “I’ll have ten groszys’ worth of [mustard” Rowdy mug Peacock of nations “I’ll have ten groszys’ worth of ice cream” One That’s it One Wonder – “Keeper, one more bottle on ice!” And pow! pow!
And the square is suddenly empty, A corpse is dragged into a gateway. And pow! pow! from around the corner,
315 "T EN SA M O D W IE C ZN Y W R Ó G NIE B EZ P IE C ZN Y "… I w bruk, w bruk tętniącemi Kopytami bac po głowie Ka Wa Le Ryjskimi! Raz! Dwa! Hurra, panowie! Malo, panowie! Brawo, panowie! I bac, bac! Słońce na ziemi! Człowiek na ziemi! I krew na ziemi! 21
And into the cobbles, into the cobbles [pulsating
With hooves pow over the head Ca Va L ry! One! Two! Hurray, gents! Malo, gents! Bravo, gents! And pow, pow!
Sun on the ground! Man on the ground!
And blood on the ground!
Certainly the Z wierszy o państwie series, heralding with its poetics the masterful Bal w Operze, is a work that has grown the more time has passed blurring the clarity of the references to a specific historical reality and which owes its general dimension to the clash of two perspectives: that of a poet and that of a satirist. Yet I do not think that the former, despite its lyrical framework created by the first and final fragments, is superior in reference to the latter. It is rather the masterful combination of complementing elements, the lyrical and the satirical, that aids the ge-neralisation of the work’s critical diagnosis, which has remained unne-rvingly relevant.
Yet the universal character of the satirical works which Tuwim inclu-ded in his poetic volumes is mostly ensured by the problems raised and the worldview of the critical attitude manifested in them towards the reality. Tuwim’s satire – which has had generalising ambitions, and which emerged from the poet’s aversion to any and all institutionalised forms of life – is not only laced with a fear of community having a destructive impact on human personality, as well as a sense of the absurdity of human existence. By operating as a supercilious observer and a judge of the present donning the costume of a prophet, Tuwim the satirist, driven by an eagerness which proved his emotional attitude towards the object of his criticism, exposed that which terrified him the most: the mentality of humans unwittingly submitting to the rule of popular opinion, a complete ignoramus suscep- tible to ideological manipulation. Such a figure is not quite comical, but ra-ther dangerous in their idiocy as represented by the caricature in the poem “Mieszkańcy” where the “straszni mieszczanie” [dreadful townspeople] are
mumbling and raving all day long:
21 J. Tuwim, “Bal w Operze,” in idem, Wiersze wybrane, introduction and edited by M. Głowiński (Wrocław, 1986), 272–273.
316 eL ŻB Ie tA S ID o R U K (…) patrząc – widzą wszystko oddzielnie: Że dom… że Stasiek… że koń… że drzewo… Jak ciasto biorą gazety w palce I żują, żują na papkę pulchną, Aż papierowym wzdęte zakalcem, Wypchane głowy grubo im puchną. I znowu mówią, że Ford… że kino… Że Bóg… że Rosja… radio, sport, wojna… Warstwami rośnie brednia potworna I w dżungli zdarzeń widmami płyną.22
(…) when looking –– saw everything [separately:
One house… one Stasiek… one horse… [one tree…
They take newspapers in their hands like [cake
And they chew, chew to spongy pulp, Until bloated with paper sad cake, Their stuffed heads swell thick.
And they continue, one Ford… one cinema… One God… one Russia… radio, sport, war… Terrible nonsense grows in layers
And they flow like spectres in the jungle [of events.
In emphatically depicting the futility and automatism of the existence of the “dreadful townspeople,” who cared mostly for their “reverent pro-perty and holy acquisitions” and only about the potential loss (“Pod łóżka włażą, złodzieja węszą, / Łbem o nocniki chłodne trącając”23 [They crawl under their beds smelling a thief, / Smacking their heads on the cool pots]) of that which was “theirs, exclusive, earned,” Tuwim gave vent not only to his contempt-laced aversion to community, but also, or rather mainly, to his fear of the “dreadful nonsense” spread by those who strode in “deserving steps” on the earth which was “so well-known, so round,” who “saw eve-rything individually”24 and who constituted the sustenance for ideological manipulators of the “mętny henio” [murky Henry] type, scathingly por-trayed in “Wiec,” most depressing, similarly to the well-known poem “Do prostego człowieka”25, for its unrelenting validity:
Ziało brednią, gorącem, czerwienią, Febrą trzęsło i kołem szło.
Nie wiadomo kto, jakiś henio, Zaczął pleść niewidomo co.
Przerzucało się gorączkowo Wypiekami z twarzy na twarz. Straszny henio z zadartą głową Wykrzykiwał, że jósz, że czasz!
There blew nonsense, heat, redness, There shook with fever and rolled with
[a wheel.
No one knows who, some henio, Began blabbering no one knows what. Feverishly there jumped
Blushes from face to face.
Dreadful henio with his head kept high Shouted that nowses, that timeses!
22 J. Tuwim, “Mieszkańcy,” in idem, Wiersze zebrane…, vol. II, 182–183. 23 Ibid.
24 Ibid.
25 The poem became popular because of the band Akurat, which in 2003 created music to it. On YouTube there are several versions of the work performed by various artists.
317 "T EN SA M O D W IE C ZN Y W R Ó G NIE B EZ P IE C ZN Y "… Przysięgali mętnemu heniowi, Kluski zdań wycharkując z grdyk, I wpatrzeni z zachwytem krowim Na komendę rzucali ryk. I zaczęli się tłoczyć i spiętrzać, W piramidę gramoląc się wzwyż, I tak rosła brednia coraz większa, A na szczycie stał – nieomal krzyż.26
They swore to murky henio,
Spitting balls of words from their throats, And staring in bovine admiration They threw their shouts when ordered to. And they began to press and pile, Clambering upwards into a pyramid, And thus, an ever bigger nonsense grew, And at the top there stood – almost a cross.
The “dreadful townspeople” with intellectual horizons shaped by new-spapers, suppressing their existential fears with automatically mumbled pray-ers“...od nagłej śmierci… / …od wojny …od głodu …odpoczywanie”27 [from sudden death... / ... from war ...from hunger ...rest] are “dreadful” because of their susceptibility to the propaganda of those who say “no one knows what,” primitive, “some Henry” under whose influence they turn into a despicable and dangerous crowd. The caricatural depiction and the derisive tone belit-tling the object of criticism are a form of defence through attack, which is indicated by the poem’s closing sarcastic exclamation of the speaking persona presenting themselves as a potential victim of the followers of the “murky”:
– Tak chamjo rozdziawione i ciemne, Chamjo z akcentem na o,
Rozwrzeszczało te czasy nikczemne W heniowate nie widomo co. Grzmij, tryumfuj, najplugawsze zło, My będziemy twoim żerem i pastwą! A ty – krwią uświetnione żelastwo Po muzeach rozwieszaj, chamjo!28
– Thus, oh boorish, spread and dull, Boorishly with a stress,
Squalled these despicable times, Into this Henio’s no-one-knows-what. Roar, triumph, oh, the foulest of evils, We shall be your prey and quarry! And you – iron stuff celebrated with blood Hang through every museum, oh boorish!
One should note that in prophesying the triumph of boorishness per-ceived as “the foulest of evils,” the blinded dull crowd, the poet juxtaposed that not with an “I” but with “we” which would become its “prey and qu-arry.” The answer to the question among whom the speaking persona consi-dered themselves could be suggested by the motto of the poem ***[Znów to szuranie, bełkotu chór...]: Surgunt indocti et rapiunt coelum – et nos cum scientia
nostra mergimur in infernum. In the context of the whole work, the maxim
borrowed from St. Augustine in which ignorance brings one closer to God (“niewykształceni powstają i zdobywają niebo” [the uneducated rise and co-nquer heaven]) and knowledge condemns one to hell (“a my z naszą wiedzą toniemy w piekle” [and we with our knowledge drown in hell]) resonates ironically. In Tuwim’s poem, hell on Earth is represented by a “tyrannous
26 J. Tuwim, “Wiec,” in idem, Wiersze zebrane…, vol. II, 175. 27 Idem, Mieszkańcy…, 183
318 eL ŻB Ie tA S ID o R U K
community,” to use an expression from the poem ...Et arceo – a mindless “nightmare” not seeing the futility of its existence:
Znów to szuranie, bełkotu chór, Znów na ulice wylazło z nór Dwieście tysięcy, trzysta tysięcy Poprzebieranych świątecznych zmór. Zieje pustynią zeszklały wzrok, W otchłań zapada każdy ich krok, W ultra-kolorach, w meta-ubiorach Łażą rozwlekle przez cały rok. To oni – sprawcy brzuchatych bab, Sznycla, gazety, tryumfów, klap, Skrótów, paszportów. Forsy i sportów, Słowa „gustowny” i słowa „schab”. To oni – naród, społeczność, wiek, Styl i epoka, i dziejów bieg,
Ten sam odwieczny wróg niebezpieczny, Podsłuch powszechny, masowy szpieg. Rozstąp się, bruku upiornych miast! Rozstąp się, niebo, zbrojownio łask! Biesa tępego, biesa głupiego Oświeć i przeraź gradem swych gwiazd! 29 Again that shuffling, the chorus of gibberish, Again there emerged from their dens into
[the streets
Two hundred thousand, three hundred [thousand
All dressed up holiday nightmares. The frozen sight emanates emptiness, Their every step falls into an abyss, In ultra colours, in meta clothing They stroll around all year round. It is them – the perpetrators of pregnant
[women,
Of pork chops, newspapers, triumphs, [failures,
Abridgements, passports. Cash and sports, Of the word “fancy” and the word “pork
[loin.”
It is them – the nation, community, age, Style and epoch, and the course of time, That same eternal dangerous enemy, Bugs tapping everything, a massive spy. Part, oh cobbles of dreadful cities! Part, oh sky, you armoury of graces! The blunt fiend, the stupid fiend
May you illuminate and terrify with a hail [of your stars!
The community depicted in the poem is a multiplying crowd of aim-lessly moving pawns hidden underneath bright costumes giving the appe-arance of diversity,30 whose internal emptiness is revealed by their “frozen sight.” Those are consumers devoid of a sense of metaphysical dread, una-ware of the fact that an abyss spans underneath their very feet, for whom material prosperity and social position are the measures of their lives’ suc-cess. Finally, those are (which stirs in the poetic person not only aversion but
29 J. Tuwim, “***[Znów to szuranie, bełkotu chór…],” in idem, Wiersze zebrane…, vol. II, 242.
30 The motif of pawns in Tuwim’s poetry was analysed in detail by Piotr Matywiecki, who referenced such poems as ***[Znów to szuranie, bełkotu chór…] as examples of the appli-cation of the motif functioning as a sociological metaphor. See P. Matywiecki, Twarz Tuwima (Warsaw, 2007), 588–591.
319 "T EN SA M O D W IE C ZN Y W R Ó G NIE B EZ P IE C ZN Y "… also unrest) the guardians, who violate others’ right to privacy, of common opinion – “the eternal enemy” of those who do not submit to its rule. The poem’s closing grandiloquent exclamation, in which the crowd seems to be the incarnation of a blunt and stupid fiend, reveals the worldview-based horizons of Tuwim’s criticism of community: the tendency to yield to the pressure of a “tyrannous community” appears to be the result of a disap-pearance of metaphysical emotions. Those “unenlightened” by the “hail of stars” – not experiencing the terror of existence, or rather trying to suppress it – cannot see that from between all forms of social life “chaos and terror, and a deadly emptiness”31 emerge. Those who can notice that emptiness can only cry in vain for the enlightenment of the “blunt fiend” or resort to a seemingly cool contempt in Horace’s style:
I w tym hucznym stuleciu tyrańskiej [wspólnoty,
Śród głupich wielkorządców i tępej hołoty, Gdzie patos lwi rozdyma mrówcza
[krzątaninę,
Gromadząc ludzkość w nudną, [mieszczańską rodzinę,
Gdzie pustego kościoła krzykliwi papieże Na gruzach Babilonu – babilońskie wieże Wznoszą pośród szwargotu [wyszczekanych maszyn, A chciwa czerń szpieguje samotność serc [naszych, W tym wieku rozjątrzonym, wydętym, [okrutnym – Przechodzę, mijam, milczę: obcy, zimny, [smutny.32
And in this thunderous century of [tyrannous community,
Among stupid grand rulers and blunt [riffraff,
Where a lion’s pathos blows the hustle and [bustle,
Gathering humanity into a boring [bourgeois family,
Where the empty church’s shouty popes On the rubble of Babylon – raise Babylon
[towers
Among the jabber of loud machinery, And the greedy blackness spies on the
[loneliness of our hearts,
In this rankled, bulging, cruel century – I walk by, pass, keep my silence: alien,
[cold, sad.
Yet it is difficult to maintain a cool distance when one is constantly being attacked and excluded. Tuwim’s satire certainly owed its momentum to its inherent defence mechanism. His aversion to the community, which he manifested so emphatically and ruthlessly, seems laced with a fear that his existence was not more authentic than the lives of the characters he por-trayed, e.g. the “biedny ojciec beznadziejnych pociech, / Mąż zahukany” [poor father of hopeless children, / Cowed husband] experiencing a mo-ment’s happiness in a hotel toilet in the poem “Luksus,” or the character in Trzy wiersze o fryzjerze compensating for his “wewnętrzną pustkę dzia-łaniami zastępczymi”33 [internal emptiness with substitute activities]. As Agnieszka Czyżak noted in her interesting interpretation of the triptych:
31 J. Tuwim, …“Et areco,” in idem, Wiersze zebrane…, vol. II, 154. 32 Ibid.
33 A. Czyżak, “Substancja miasta – wokół „Trzech wierszy o fryzjerze” Juliana Tuwima,”
320 eL ŻB Ie tA S ID o R U K The universal dimension of Tuwim’s remarks, so often extremely pessimi-stic, in today’s reception is sometimes lost in the spatial staffage, carefully erected decorations, and stage conventionality – yet the simplest attempt at cracking the visions meticulously constructed by the poet may lead to unexpected interpretative discoveries.34
When reading the poem in the context of postmodern reflections on urban space, the researcher noted that the protagonist of Trzy wiersze o fryzjerze who “according to Tuwim’s intentions was supposed to be (...) an example of a typical human pawn stripped of any dignity or humanity, (...) not quite guilty of his condition,” could be “considered a prototype of many modern ‘prisoners of space’ – including those limiting themselves or being limited to virtual space.”35 According to Czyżak, such a consideration of Tuwim’s pro-tagonist could trigger new interpretative contexts: “The persistence of the human predisposition to produce projections and scripts of substitute lives independent of changing historical and social conditions or social norms, or of the available means supporting their creation, could prove one of those.”36
The fact that, despite the outdated decorations, the satirical portraits of human pawns reveal their universal dimension could be explained with an obsessive sense of the lack of obviousness of one’s “own existence as a human and a poet,”37 which Tuwim tried to evade by surprising “his contemporaries with bright costumes selected for roles played in various rituals. Throughout his life and with his whole life he participated in a theatre of myths. The stage for those rituals were his works.”38 Unlike his protagonists, the poet saw, as indicated in the self-critical “Wiersz z głuchym końcem,” not only the dread of empty existence, but also the salvaging power of metaphysical terror39:
Ratuje – strach, rosnący w piersi, Zabobon, szczurem biegający, Rozpacz i łaska zimniej śmierci, O! nie karzącej. Drwiącej tylko.40
Saves – fear, growing the chest, Superstition, running as a rat, The despair and grace of cool death, Alas! not punishing. Only mocking.
*
In Tuwim’s output, there are so strong bonds between poetry and sa-tire that many of the works published in his poetic collections cannot be classified as unequivocally poetry or satire. The perspectives of poet and satirist complement each other, and it is often difficult to establish whether
34 Ibid., 50. 35 Ibid., 54. 36 Ibid.
37 P. Matywiecki, Twarz Tuwima…, 721. 38 Ibid., 719.
39 See T. Stępień, Kabaret Juliana Tuwima…, 134–135; A. Węgrzyniak, “«Wiersz z głuchym końcem». O rytmie śmierci w poezji Tuwima,” in Julian Tuwim. Biografia – twórczość – recepcja, edited by K. Ratajska, T. Cieślak (Łódź, 2007), 86–87. An interesting attempt at explaining the essence of Tuwim’s “dread” was undertaken by Tomasz Wójcik in the study “Nic Juliana Tuwima (dwie wykładnie),” Czytanie Literatury. Łódzkie Studia Literaturoznawcze, issue 3 (2014).
321 "T EN SA M O D W IE C ZN Y W R Ó G NIE B EZ P IE C ZN Y "…
one dominates over the other.41 That is more of a question of the personal reflections of readers. However, the clash of those two perspectives seems to cause one to make a generalisation about the prevalence of the satirical nature, though the universal dimension of Tuwim’s satire is mainly deter-mined by its worldview-based horizons and the fear-laced aversion to com-munity which has a detrimental impact on human personality. The sense of the absurdity of one’s own existence, which produced for Tuwim distance not only towards the society but also from himself, enabled him to peer deep into the mentality of the mindless members of the “tyrannous com-munity.” The striking topicality of the critical diagnosis is both shocking and painful.
R E F E R E N C E S
Bogel, Frederic. The Difference Satire Makes. Rhetoric and Reading from Jonson
to Byron. London–Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000.
Czyżak, Agnieszka. “Substancja miasta – wokół «Trzech wierszy o fryzje-rze» Juliana Tuwima.” Czytanie Literatury. Łódzkie Studia
Literaturoznaw-cze, issue 3 (2014): 47–55.
Griffin, Dustin. Satire. A Critical Reintroduction. Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 1994.
Matywiecki, Piotr. Twarz Tuwima. Warsaw: Wydawnictwo W.A.B., 2007. Sidoruk, Elżbieta. Granice
satyry. Białystok: Uniwersytet w Białymstoku, In-stytut Filologii Polskiej, 2018.
Sidoruk, Elżbieta. Groteska w poezji Dwudziestolecia. Leśmian – Tuwim –
Gał-czyński. Białystok: Wydawnictwo, 2004.
Simpson, Paul. On the Discourse of Satire. Towards a Stylistic Model of Satirical
Humor. Amsterdam–Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Compa-ny, 2003.
Stępień, Tomasz. Kabaret Juliana Tuwima. Katowice: Wydawnictwo Śląsk, 1989. Stępień, Tomasz. O
satyrze. Katowice: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskie-go, 1996.
Węgrzyniak, Anna. Ja głosów świata imitator. Studia o poezji Juliana Tuwima. Katowice: Wydawnictwo Śląsk, 2003.
Węgrzyniak, Anna. “«Wiersz z głuchym końcem». O rytmie śmierci w po-ezji Tuwima.” In Julian Tuwim. Biografia – twórczość – recepcja. Edited by K. Ratajska, T. Cieślak, 85–95. Łódź: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, 2007.
41 This phenomenon was not specific only for Tuwim’s works. Such tendencies could be found in the poetry of Heinrich Heine or Alexander Pushkin, whose works Tuwim translated. As I have tried to indicate in my previous works, the lines between poetry and satire prove to be fluid, e.g. in the poetry of Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński (see E. Sidoruk, Groteska w po-ezji Dwudziestolecia…, 219–286) or Tadeusz Różewicz (E. Sidoruk, Granice satyry…, 287–332). It seems that the intertwining of the two elements in poetry, modern poetry in particular, is a rather widespread phenomenon.
322 eL ŻB Ie tA S ID o R U K
Węgrzyniakowa, Anna. Dialektyka organizacji językowej tekstu w poezji Tuwima. Katowice: Uniwersytet Śląski, 1987.
Wójcik, Tomasz. “Nic Juliana Tuwima (dwie wykładnie).” Czytanie Literatury.
Łódzkie Studia Literaturoznawcze, issue 3 (2014): 35–45.
Elżbieta Sidoruk – Ph.D., assistant professor at the Department of Theory
and Anthropology of Literature, Institute of Polish Philology, University of Bialystok. She focusses on 20th-century Polish literature within the perspec-tive of historical poetics, in particular such phenomena as: satire, grotesque, parody, and the phenomenon of literary space perceived within the cate-gories of geopoetics. She is the author of the following books: Antropologia
i groteska w dziełach Sławomira Mrożka (1995), Groteska w poezji Dwudziestolecia. Leśmian – Tuwim – Gałczyński (2004), Granice satyry (2018), and the
editor-in- -chief of the “Białostockie Studia Literaturoznawcze” journal, and a co-edi-tor of a series of collective monographs: Od poetyki przestrzeni do geopoetyki (2012), Geografia i metafora (2014), Przestrzenie geo(bio)graficzne w literaturze (2015), and Geograficzne przestrzenie utekstowione (2017).
